Law and regulation

The Senate's approval of Richard Cordray's nomination to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does more than give the agency a permanent director: it also removes Republicans' biggest bargaining chip in their longstanding push to force key structural changes at the agency.

Herb Allison, who died Sunday, turned out to have far more in common with his critics than seemed possible during the heat of the financial crisis.

An encompassing denominator and full disclosure requirements should assuage concerns that Basel fails to go far enough to cushion banks for unexpected losses.

Other reforms are getting short shrift while federal regulators fascinate over the power of capital rules to reform the banking business.

Notwithstanding recent media criticism, there is little doubt that these products offer a better alternative for unbanked and underbanked consumers who would otherwise use a cash-based system to manage their finances.

Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, asked the Government Accountability Office to shadow the Financial Stability Oversight Council's process for designating systemically important institutions.

On Tuesday the law firm Morrison & Foerster announced that it has hired Donald Lampe, who headed Dykema's financial services regulatory and compliance team, as a partner.

Hedge funds have beaten the FDIC in a series of legal disputes over the assets of bankrupt holding companies, exposing a serious flaw in the regulator's system for recovering value from failed institutions.

The most notable quotes from American Banker stories of the previous week. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations in the Comments fields at the bottom of each slide.

Have you ever imagined starting your own bitcoin exchange? Soon, Vancouver-based Bex.io will make that possible by deploying exchange functionality under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

Kipochi, an African online service launched this month, is looking for a way to connect the digital currency Bitcoin to M-Pesa, Kenya's widely-used mobile payments system.

There is little proof that a doubling of guarantee fees in the last year by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has brought private investors back into the mortgage market, says the FHFA's inspector general in a new report.

Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, is asking the Government Accountability Office to examine the Financial Stability Oversight Council's process for designating systemically important institutions to ensure that it is transparent and fair.

Planned price increases and hints that households are looking for higher yields for their savings suggest that the flood tide of deposits could finally be ebbing.

A uniform mortgage-backed-security product, more risk sharing and help for small banks are some of the housing-finance fixes that the Mortgage Bankers Association urges regulators to make now.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named a new chief operating officer and chief of staff, among other appointments, following a string of recent departures in its senior level suite.

Other countries are discussing implementing capital reforms that go beyond Basel III after the U.S. proposed a leverage ratio higher than the international accord, Federal Reserve Board Gov. Daniel Tarullo said Monday.

A bipartisan commission, in lieu of a director, would encourage internal deliberation and constrain the CFPB’s ability to make politically motivated or ill-informed decisions.

The law firm BuckleySandler has beefed up its financial services practice with the addition of three heavy-hitting litigators all lured away from Dykema Gossett PLLC.

Barclays is in an awkward situation that will ring familiar to bankers in the U.S. The U.K. bank has been terminating relationships with money transmitters, including several that wire funds to Somalia, a ravaged country that relies heavily on remittances from immigrants in the West. The bank says it's uncomfortable with the risk and expense of serving these businesses in light of recent fines levied against big financial institutions for anti-money laundering lapses. But now it's being accused of starting a humanitarian crisis.